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Fixation (german: Fixierung) is a
concept Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by ...
(in human
psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...
) that was originated by
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
(1905) to denote the persistence of
anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...
sexual traits. The term subsequently came to denote object relationships with attachments to people or things in general persisting from childhood into adult life.


Freud

In ''
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality ''Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality'' (german: Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie), sometimes titled ''Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex'', is a 1905 work by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author advance ...
'' (1905), Freud distinguished the fixations of the libido on an incestuous object from a fixation upon a specific, partial ''aim'', such as
voyeurism Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature. The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". ...
. Freud theorized that some humans may develop psychological fixation due to one or more of the following: #A lack of proper gratification during one of the psychosexual stages of development. #Receiving a strong impression from one of these stages, in which case the person's personality would reflect that stage throughout adult life. #"An excessively strong manifestation of these instincts at a very early age
hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
leads to a kind of partial ''fixation'', which then constitutes a weak point in the structure of the sexual function". As Freud's thought developed, so did the range of possible 'fixation points' he saw as significant in producing particular neuroses. However, he continued to view fixation as "the manifestation of very early linkages which it is hard to between instincts and impressions and the objects involved in those impressions". Psychoanalytic
therapy A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many differe ...
involved producing a new
transference Transference (german: Übertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which the "feelings, attitudes, or desires" a person had about one thing are subconsciously projected onto the here-and-now Other. It usually concerns feelings from a ...
fixation in place of the old one. The new for example a father-transference onto the may be very different from the old, but will absorb its energies and enable them eventually to be released for non-fixated purposes.


Objections

*Whether a particularly obsessive attachment is a fixation or a defensible expression of
love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
is at times debatable. Fixation to intangibles (i.e., ideas, ideologies, etc.) can also occur. The obsessive factor of fixation is also found in symptoms pertaining to
obsessive compulsive disorder Obsession may refer to: Psychology * Celebrity worship syndrome, obsessive addictive disorder to a celebrity's personal and professional life * Fixation (psychology), a persistent attachment to an object or idea * Idée fixe (psychology), a pr ...
, which psychoanalysts linked to a mix of early (pregenital) frustrations and gratifications. *Fixation has been compared to psychological imprinting at an early and sensitive period of development. others object that Freud was attempting to stress the looseness of the ties between libido and object, and the need to find a specific cause any given (perverse or neurotic) fixation.


Post-Freudians

Melanie Klein Melanie Klein (née Reizes; 30 March 1882 – 22 September 1960) was an Austrian-British author and psychoanalyst known for her work in child analysis. She was the primary figure in the development of object relations theory. Klein suggested t ...
saw fixation as inherently pathological – a blocking of potential sublimation by way of repression.
Erik H. Erikson Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen; 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychological development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity cr ...
distinguished fixation to zone – oral or anal, for example – from fixation to mode, such as taking in, as with his instance of the man who "may eagerly absorb the 'milk of wisdom' where he once desired more tangible fluids from more sensuous containers".
Eric Berne Eric Berne (May 10, 1910 – July 15, 1970) was a Canadian-born psychiatrist who created the theory of transactional analysis as a way of explaining human behavior. Berne's theory of transactional analysis was based on the ideas of Freud ...
, developed his insight further as part of transactional analysis, suggesting that "particular games and scripts, and their accompanying physical symptoms, are based in appropriate zones and modes". Heinz Kohut saw the grandiose self as a fixation upon a normal childhood stage; while other post-Freudians explored the role of fixation in aggression and criminality.


In popular culture

*Coleridge's '' Christabel'' has been seen as using witchcraft as a vehicle to explore psychological fixation. * Tennyson has been considered to show a romantic fixation on days of old.Kathryn Ledbetter, ''Tennyson and Victorian Periodicals'' (2007) p. 52


See also


References


External links


Claude Smadja, "Fixation"Fixation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fixation (Psychology) Freudian psychology Psychoanalytic terminology Sexology 1900s neologisms